Like the rest of the world, Ukraine does not recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea. But in order to provide a better legal environment for Crimea's two million people, Ukraine’s parliament on April 15 passed a law to ensure civic rights on temporarily occupied territories.
Although the law does not make life in occupied Crimea much easier, it still removes some obstacles.It defines the official status of temporarily occupied territory, establishes a special legal regime there and outlines the framework for government bodies as well as business entities to function.
Moreover, the new legislation guarantees on paper citizen rights and freedoms.“Responsibility for violating the Ukrainian constitution, Ukrainian laws and international treaties, the rights and freedoms of a human and a citizen on temporarily occupied territory is placed upon the Russian Federation as the occupying state, according to the norms and principles of international law,” the document states.
Generally, there is a consensus of lawyers who support the Ukrainian government’s stance of not recognizing any decision taken by Crimean authorities within Russian legislation, while placing the blame on Russia for violating the rights of local citizens is also seen as a correct measure.
However, legal experts admit that Ukraine has no tools to implement these provisions.
Dmytro Marchukov, counsel at Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners, praises the law as “well balanced and quite reasonable,” but at the same time he believes that “the law is more of a benefit to Ukraine as a state, rather than to the people of Crimea.
”It serves the government because it provides legal recognition of Crimea as a part of Ukraine and puts the blame on Russia for what is happening on the peninsula now.
As a result, some Crimean residents were able to vote on the mainland in the May 25 presidential election, says Mykola Stetsenko, managing partner at Avellum law firm.
Another important byproduct is that the law recognizes the peninsula’s residents as Ukrainian citizens. Since Ukrainian legislation does not allow dual citizenship, the law assures Crimeans who became Russian citizens that they do not risk being deprived of their Ukrainian citizenship.Crimea’s residents can receive and renew their Ukrainian passports, study and work on the mainland as ordinary Ukrainian citizens.
Moreover, the newly adopted bill does not outlaw doing business in Crimea, however conducting it in the peninsula has become much more difficult as the National Bank of Ukraine prohibited Ukrainian banks to operate there.
However, lawyers see various obstacles for implementing the law. “The benefit for the Crimean population is somewhat limited,” says Marchukov.
“Ukraine has no efficient tools to enforce the law, as well as (to uphold) the various rights and freedoms of Ukrainian nationals on Crimean territory.”
He continued: “The law provides only general guarantees while the exact procedures are still to be laid down by the government or other responsible authorities.”
Avellum’s Stetsenko believes that provisions to the law cannot be implemented in the current situation.
“The law is utterly required, but difficult relations with Russia almost nullify its positive undertakings,” he says.Experts add that legal procedures in Crimea will not be conducted in accordance with Ukrainian legislation.
The recently adopted law obliges Crimean courts to forward pending cases to mainland courts. In actuality, Crimean courts are guided in accordance with Russian procedural rules within a Russian judicial hierarchy.
Also problematic, according to Marchukov, is enforcing a norm that implies free usage of privately-owned homes in Crimea by Ukrainian military units.
“It is highly unlikely that Russian authorities would allow the law to be implemented in this context in Crimea,” he explains.
Gabriel Aslanian, a counselor at Asters law firm, says: “The recently adopted law does not address the overall regulation of business operations in Crimea.”
Local businesses have to create Ukraine-based units along with Russia-registered ones “to preserve both property rights over immovable assets and at least a part of past income.
”Moreover, paying taxes to the Ukrainian budget is impossible in Crimea, even if local taxpayers are willing to do this. A draft law on tax collection in Crimea is being developed.The legal framework for real estate issues is of high concern among the Crimean population.
The law guarantees the validity of documents and transactions with immovable assets made in accordance with the Ukrainian legislation, while it also bans any real estate operations under a different jurisdiction.
But Crimean authorities insist that all real estate should be registered under Russian jurisdiction – a rule which is difficult to violate since the property is physically located in Crimea, and controlled by Russians.Stetsenko of Avellum says that only those real estate owners, who hope that Crimea will eventually go back under Ukrainian rule, follow the requirements of Ukrainian legislation. In some cases, property owners conduct dual transactions – one according to Ukrainian legislation, and another based on Russian, the lawyer said.
Kyiv Post staff writer Nataliya Trach can be reached at [email protected].
